


Parental Supervision Required

by iimpavid, It_MightBe_Love



Series: the batmom multiverse [8]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jason Todd doesn't die, Jewish Characters, Kidfic, Kidnapping, Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:34:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28430235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iimpavid/pseuds/iimpavid, https://archiveofourown.org/users/It_MightBe_Love/pseuds/It_MightBe_Love
Summary: Bruce wants Jason to “deal with” his “family issues”, so he’s going to deal with them. On his terms.
Series: the batmom multiverse [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1045682
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Parental Supervision Required

**Author's Note:**

> I would apologize for inundating y'all with a deluge of over 3-years-old fic but I'm really not sorry.
> 
> Also known as the AU where April Adler has a twin brother.

“Hiya, Rich, how’s it goin’? Or would you rather I call you Dick?” 

“The hell! I coulda shot you, yanno that? good God!”

The kid sitting cross-legged on Richard Albert’s desk did absolutely no favors for his ulcer. First, because this meant a teenager had disabled the alarm system he’d paid good money for and second, because the teenager in question—

“So  _ formal _ ! You can just call me Robin,” he smirked, all teeth beneath his domino mask. “I know your gig is you get paid for stalkin’ people an’ all but I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to stalk middle schoolers. What’s that about?” 

“I’m just doin’ my job, kid, okay. If you’ve gotta problem with how I’m doin’ it you can take it up with the PI Registry. Where’s your boss anyway?” 

He sighed, put upon, “Alright, I thought you were gonna be difficult about it but, y’know what? I’ll just see myself out.” 

Richard moved to grab him— vigilantes were a menace on a good day and this was straight up B&E, the kid needed to experience actual consequences never mind the fact that at 11pm on a Tuesday he should be at home not committing misdemeanors— but his fingers closed around air. The errant breeze fluttered the curtains in the open window. Robin was gone.

With a sigh, he stood back and surveyed his office. The kid had been neat about tossing it if such a thing were possible. File cabinets leaning forward from the weight of their open drawers, an obnoxious moose screensaver scrolling across his computer monitor that he hadn’t put there, the contents of his desk stacked neatly on top of it, a bottle of whiskey with a sticky note on it reading _ you’re gonna ruin your liver boss _ — but April Adler’s file was missing. Hard copy and digital; the copies of copies lifted as cleanly as if they’d never been there in the first place.

* * *

No fewer than seven false starts and more felonies than even Bruce might condone for the sake of the job led Jason to Ethiopia because his birth mother has been kidnapped by The Joker.

That’s glossing over a lot but a lot isn’t relevant. Bruce wants Jason to “deal with” his “family issues”, so he’s going to deal with them. On his terms.

His mother’s name is April Adler. The best lead is always the last place you look. Never mind the fact that she’s an heiress— he’s not a Todd and that’s the best news he’s ever gotten in his life including the day Bruce told him he could stay.

So he’s in Ethiopia in the middle of summer during monsoon season. Even at night, it’s too humid to exist— Jason is begrudgingly glad for the seven million vaccines Bruce made him get last spring— and the compound where April Adler is supposedly being held is a smoking ruin, fires still burning inside despite the torrential rain. And then, of course, someone puts a gun to Jason’s head. Because there’s always gotta be some asshole with a gun around or else it wouldn’t be his life. 

One of these days he’s gonna be able to shoot back and, boy, that’ll sure change the rules of the game.

“Can I help you?” Jason asks, unamused.

The man made a noise of recognition and holstered his weapon. “Yeah, actually, you could help me figure out why you’re hanging out in a warzone without your boss.” 

“Camping.”

* * *

Andrew Miller is less than thrilled when it comes down the wire his sister has been kidnapped. It’s happened often enough (Jesus fuckin’ Christ) that they have fuckin’ protocol for it. Curse April’s big goddamn brain.

Except it’s the goddamn Joker out of Gotham and it ain’t academia or politically motivated for once and when he and half his squad get pulled to extract her from fuckin’ Ethiopia, she’s got the Clown Prince of Gotham standing over her. They’re in the midst of a shouting match. Rick gives Andrew a look and Andrew squeezes the trigger gentle like and watches through his scope, as the Joker’s head concaves around a round big enough to put down a bear.

April is, understandably and justifiably pissed about the blood spatter. But Ethiopia is a toilet bowl of sticky rain, bugs, and humid heat that makes everything awful.

They get her out and, after putting another round in the creep from Gotham, proceed to light the warehouse up. Remove the physical traces of evidence and it's like it never happened. 

His sister looks small, soakin’ wet and without shoes, so he piggybacks her back to base camp and lets her shout about. Well. It’s April. She could go on a tear about anything if you get her riled up enough about it.

Leaving her with Rick though is gonna get him in trouble at some point in the nearish future, but April needs to shout and he needs to not look at his twin covered in blood and bruises.

Which is why it’s a damn surprise to find a fuckin’ Robin in  _ Ethiopia _ . 

“C’mon kid. Basecamp is this way. If we hoof it you’ll get to treat yourself to my sister chewing my CO out.”

It’s a hell of a non-sequitur, given the givens.

Jason doesn't know why the hell he should care about this dude's sister any more than he should care about any other stranger on the street-- except that maybe now he's going to be kidnapped and wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake? Six months of dead ends and relentless pursuit only to find his birth mother blown up and get himself kidnapped by possible-Joker-lackeys probably for the sake of interrogation because no one alive has enough brain cells to figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman. (Sure, the disinformation and propaganda campaign they run is good but, if anyone were to ask Jason, it's not  _ that  _ good.) 

Jason's tired. He's pissed. His supposedly-waterproof boots have an awful squelching feeling inside them that's only getting worse. He needs to have a Conversation with Lucius about that. He kind of wants to cry because his feet are wet and it’s been a long, long day... but now he's got bigger things to worry about than his boots.

* * *

Jason knew intellectually that April Adler topped out at 5' 2" (sometimes the 2 was 1 3/4 depending on the person measuring) but the cognitive dissonance between the aura she projected and the reality as she shouted down a man twice her size was … startling.

Also, April Adler wasn't dead.

That's a pleasant surprise.

Jason has the good grace not to gape or go bug-eyed or even react much beyond staring because now that he's here -- there was supposed to be a (daring, exciting, minimally-traumatic, pick an adjective) rescue. He didn't prepare a script for this.

April Adler is easily as terrifying as some of the terrorists Rick Flag has had to take down. He is absolutely unsurprised she and Andrew are twins. Andrew is like the stretched tall version only less prone to bombastic outbursts. (Andrew jokes that April got all their daddy’s fearsomeness and he got all their daddy’s charm. He isn’t entirely wrong). Being on the receiving end of one of Adler’s tirades is a lesson in not flinching. He knows she’ll apologize later in the form of food or a rare book. There’s a reason Rick’s so damn good at his job and he isn’t ashamed to say that at least ten percent is because April Adler could shout down Vesuvius if it pissed her off enough.

Andrew sets a hand on Robin’s shoulder and points, “The shouty chihuahua is my sister. The inimitable Dr. April Adler. The man she’s shoutin’ at is Captain Rick Flag.”

April’s tirade peters off and she turns, and even in the damp and the overcast, there’s something unnatural about the green of her eyes (Andrew wears tinted glasses or contacts to mute the color of his own eyes)—

“Andrew Jessep Miller th’hell’d you go—“ and stops, “...there a reason you got a kid dressed like Robin with ya?”

Rick is approximately the size of a tank. He stands at April’s shoulder and nods, “What she said, Miller.”

There’s something familiar about Robin that niggles at April’s mind, she lets her brain work at it while she squints at them.

The silence-- underscored only by the sound of the fire burning and the constant rain-- stretched on for a bit before Jason realized they were all looking at him. "Well, he was gonna shoot me until he realized I'm, like, twelve. To be fair, I'd be scared of me, too."

Andrew starts protesting and April starts laughing and Rick? Rick glances up at the sky and mouths the fucking Serenity prayer. 

"I was not scared a’you. Scared _for_ you. Scared your  _ boss  _ was gonna fuckin' show up--"

"Andrew!"

"What!?"

"He's  _ twelve _ . Watch your mouth."

Andrew flaps a hand, "C'mon  _ sestra  _ it isn't like he hasn't-" He takes a step back from April when she arches an eyebrow, "Sorry! Sorry!"

Rick pointed a finger, "You really oughta stop picking fights with your sister. She was in the middle of a screaming match with that psycho clown fucker before we took him out."

Rick stepped back as well when April turned to scowl at him. There is still blood and viscera the rain hasn't quite managed to wash away. Instead he says, "Howsabout we get into one of the kips and outta the rain before we all get pneumonia! Yeah? Awesome plan!" He fled. Andrew followed, nudging the kid toward April, who had always been better with kids than anyone he knew. 

Probably something to do with being an  _ actual mom _ , even if their mama'd put a helluva kibosh on that real quick once she caught up with her.

April heaved a sigh, "I don't s'pose y'all could let me know if you found anything out about Sheila Haywood? I was tryna track her down when that clown showed up with a goddamn taser."

"I found what was left of her in a warehouse in Addis Ababa-- her bad taste in business partners finally bit her in the ass-- hey, wait," Jason took off after the marine and Dr. Adler's taller clone-- "Hey! C'm'ere! Did you just say you killed the Joker?"

April blew out an annoyed breath, "Well. Crumbs." 

* * *

Andrew let the kid follow him into the dry tent and flung himself onto a seat. April perched delicately on a table and then promptly shoved her feet at him. They were muddy. 

Andrew stared, and then with a heavy sigh fetched up a rag to wipe the excess muck off his sister's dainty little toes. "Spoiled--" grumbled at her before the kid -- "He was holding a tire iron over my sister."

April snorted and pointed, "That's b'cause he was tryna lure this guy-" she pointed a thumb at Robin, "T'Ethiopia."

There's a long silence and then Andrew says, "And you were part of this plan... how?"

April offers up the blithest of shrugs. Andrew isn't looking at her so he misses the look she slants Robin's way before she says, "How th'hell should I know? Does anyone know why th'hell that psycho does what he does?"

Somehow it was more humid indoors. Jason stood by the entrance, water still sluicing from his hair, muddy to his knees, desperately wishing for dryer weather. 

"You shot him twice, right," he says to Andrew, avoiding looking at Dr. Adler because the longer this went on the more out of his depth he was. "Where's the body? I need tissue samples-- for confirmation." (He doesn't want to get anywhere near a corpse, particularly not this corpse-- but _evidence is evidence_. If he hadn't learned by now to gather it himself, well, he wouldn't deserve to be Robin.)

Andrew and Rick share a look and Rick says, "We took evidence. I administered the double tap. But SOP is destroying any physical remains. Hence the warehouse being up in smoke. When it's done burning we'll go back in and ensure the remains are bagged and tagged."

Phrases like “infamous domestic terrorist” and “severely compromised chain of evidence” and “multinational proxy war” floated through his head with just the barest amount of context. Accompanying them, the awful thought that Bruce would already know what Jason was starting to see in the periphery -- and the best way around all of it.

He frowned. "Standard according to who? I'm pretty sure the whole "salt and burn" strategy went out of fashion after the last world war 'cause the Third Reich loved that shit. Something about inhuman cruelty?"

Andrew and Rick in tandem, "Classified."

April nudged her foot harder into Andrew's thigh, smearing mud, "C'mon." To Robin she says, "Boychick. Please come siddown. I'm sure your boss is gonna be showin' up anytime now t'chew you out ‘cause ain't no way he let you leave Gotham unattended."

Andrew says, "She can tell you about how she knows Superman."

If Jason were made of stronger stuff he'd keep pushing. Or sit down somewhere under a blanket and wait quietly for the chance sneak off. But instead... he takes the bait. 

He doesn't sit down-- not yet, he's tired as hell but he can stay standing a little longer, just in case something goes sideways-- but he actually looks at Dr. Adler, a little incredulous, "You know Superman? How do I not know that?"

April snorts, “Of course you--” shakes her head, “Boychick...I’m one a th’leads puttin’ together th’Kryptonian Exhibit at the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. I know more Contextual Kryptonian than Kal El does--” she gives a little headshake, “I made’im a card last year that had him cryin’-- and I know’im on account of I’m stubborn as hell.”

There's only so much one 8th grader can take and Jason is  _ weak _ . "Really? Did you get to, like, touch the artifacts? How'd you learn Kryptonian? Did you just... go up to Superman one day and ask him to teach you?" Why was he studying French and Portuguese when he could be learning  _ Kryptonian _ ?

April is a sucker for excited kids, and honestly it  _ is  _ pretty damn cool that this is somehow her job, "I do yeah, an' actually what happened was I extrapolated a conversational fluency based on a half dozen artifacts that were on display and wrote my dissertation on it. Afterward, when Gotham U invited me t'teach, th'Metropolis Museum of Natural History asked me t'lead an exhibit." She pauses and scrubbed a hand through her hair, "I ended up sorta... stalkin' Clark Kent for a coupla days tryna convince him t'make an introduction," she grins, "I roped him int'it with my cookin'."

Andrew starts laughing.

"Yeah, a good meal can get anybody to do anything." Jason spoke from experience. "Your dissertation's on Kryptonian so you're, what? A historian? A scientist? How'd you get away with stalking-- you're not actually supposed to know ... that... name." He frowned. Cast a wary glance around the tent again. Another item on the list of Things Bruce Would Probably Already Know. Of course this hadn't been in the files the PI was collecting; he'd been investigating  _ Jason,  _ not April. "Remind me again why you're here?"

April blinked, "Well.. yeah-" she watches Robin for a long moment, "I'm a linguist and a hyperpolyglot," she lifted a hand and smoothed her hair back down, "I speak more'n two dozen languages, couple of'em are alien. I'm... well strictly speakin' my "specialty" is in xenolinguistics, but I also occasionally decipher code an' th'like. I have a second phd in cryptanalysis." She blew out a breath and took a moment to be thankful Andrew and Rick had left a bit ago, "Sweetheart... th'Joker kidnapped me b'cause I got in th'way a him tryna get his hands on you. I been lookin' for you since you got taken from me 'bout eight years ago."

He started to reply but nothing came out. He shut his mouth. Frowned harder. Tried again, "Okay, so. I don't." Train after train of thought went careening off the cliffside that was this entire scenario. He folded his arms over his chest and settled on, "This wasn't supposed to... go like this."

April laughed and it sounded pained, "Trust me. I never figured it'd go like this either."

"I remember you were bigger than me," he said because even though that sounded stupid as hell he didn't know where else to start. He dug his fingers beneath the edges of his domino and peeled it off. Scrubbed his palm across the spirit gum that wanted desperately to stick to his cheekbones. "Not like-- a "you're short" thing just. Did you … take me to class with you?"

April laughs again and her eyes are wet and she reaches forward to cup his face. Thumbing excess adhesive from his cheekbone, "I did. When I couldn't get nobody t'watch you. I'd drag you with me. You were so damn well-behaved. Sweetest lil boy that side a th'Mississippi."

He's tearing up because just yanking off something glued to skin all at once kind of hurts and not at all because his mom, his actual mom, is here and alive and also crying. "It, uh, didn't exactly stick, the well-behaved thing," he says, because if she's going to find out from anyone it should be him.

She scoots to the edge of the table and pulls him into a hug. He's the same size as her which is awful and wonderful and she says, "I once stabbed a man with a shrimp fork." A pause, "This was six months ago boychick. You come by th'troublemakin' naturally."

"I'm not allowed to stab people at events," he says into her hair, a little resigned because Alfred's made him say it so many times. "I bit a guy's fingers off once but that was before, uh, everything else. I didn't get arrested for it, though."

April snorted, "Stabbing is allowed as long as it's warranted. He grabbed my ass. He's lucky I didn't break his knee." She gave in and stroked her fingers through his hair. Smoothing out an errant cowlick.

"I'll break his knees for you if you want. I won't get caught."

“Shrimp fork through th’hand, darlin’.” She isn’t sure what to do now that she’s got Jason back. The fact is that she doesn’t really have him back at all. Bruce Wayne is his father and it burns her up that if he fought her, he’d win. He has more money than she has. She’s sunk most of her trust fund from Katherine into rebuilding the Adler Foundation. She doesn’t make bad money doing what she does. But it’s nothing like what she’d have had if she was still a Miller. 

She doesn’t voice any of this, just presses a tender kiss to Jason’s temple and says, “We oughta find you somethin’ to wear. You stick out something fierce dressed like that. Unless you got your own ride back t’Gotham hidin’ in the trees?”

"Uh, no I. No one knows I’m here,“ he says it a little chagrined. The monumental stupidity of that particular decision started to sink in. Sure, Bruce probably could find him, would definitely turn up eventually making all those familiar _ I’m disappointed in you noises _ because he knows Jason knows better and didn’t do better out of spite and pride— but what if he didn’t?

That’d be too easy, though. 

* * *

The rain stops, briefly, three days later. Leaving just enough clear sky to watch the Batwing descend. Talk about an anti-climax, Batman turning up expecting to rescue that errant rascal Jason Todd-Wayne and finding the kid hanging out with a couple special forces soldiers and a linguist.

Jason considers digging a hole so that he can crawl into it and die.

“Why is this my life,” he says to no one in particular, feeling sick to his stomach. Cowl or no cowl it’s pretty obvious that Bruce isn’t happy about anything in this situation. And he thinks to himself  _ yup this is it, _ the other shoe is dropping, whatever that actually means in practice, he’s about to find out— 

Bruce hugs him. 

Just. Picks him up and hugs him.

It’s uncomfortable. Physically, because Bruce is a hugger of the rib-bruising variety and kevlar and titanium-coated nanoweave are not fabrics you want to cuddle and cognitively because, well. “We, uh, have an audience?” 

Jason knows that April knows but  _ does Bruce also know that April knows _ ? The panic is real for a moment.

Bruce lets him go but doesn't bother to acknowledge April or anything at all out of the ordinary about this situation. He knew, he just didn’t care. “Ethiopia, Jason, really?” 

“It’s a great spot for camping,” he said, like this wasn’t monsoon season, like he wasn't being eaten alive by mosquitos. Then, “The Joker kidnapped my mom-- what else was I supposed to do?” 

“You could have asked for help.” 

“Literally,  _ The Joker kidnapped my actual, real life mom _ ,” he repeated. 

“She had plenty of backup.” 

“How was I supposed to know that?” There was a moment of silence. Jason considered the even look Bruce was giving him, not at all rendered ridiculous by the costume and the circumstances and it just wasn't fair, “You knew.” 

“I have higher security clearance than you do.” 

“No, you don’t— you can’t just scare people into telling you state secrets! That doesn’t count!”

April has had three days with Jason. She's also been contending with Andrew and Rick and she's half thankful it was just them come to get her from the Joker's clutches... But she's also resentful that they're stuck in Ethiopia while they wait for the rain to clear for evacuation.

Still. It's three days she gets with Jason that she didn't think she'd get to have ever. And if Andrew catches sight of his sister sometimes just watching the kid. Eyes far away. He's reminded all over again that his sister got pregnant at fourteen and left home. Intent on raising a kid by herself rather than giving him up. He remembers the late night phone calls because their mother'd completely cut her off. Terrified that she was getting sicker and sicker, and how he'd sneak into town to wire her money for the medications she needed.

How sick Jason'd been as a baby, the intervening years when their grandmother had finally figured out that Eva Mae hadn't sent April to boarding school but had thrown her out in the wake of her daughter's refusal to kowtow to her whims.

By then Andrew'd fallen out of contact with April. Edging into West Point by the skin of his teeth, and the next thing he'd heard, Katherine Adler had found April because she'd turned up in New York an hysterical, livid mess. Two semesters of community college under her belt, and raving about how someone had  _ stolen her son _ \-- Andrew knows April spent every extra cent from the trust grandmama had set up for her, paying for private investigators, trying to find the baby she'd turned her life upside down over to keep.

The sky clears on the third day, and they know a heli is coming soon, but the plane that lands belongs to the fucking Batman. 

Nobody's expecting the Batman to scoop Jason up and hold him like that.

Judging from the way April's face closes off in a way so reminiscent of their daddy, April expected it, like she knew she wasn't gonna get to keep him.

Andrew hates Batman a lot in that moment.

But his sister's voice is steady when she laughs at Jason's indignation and interjects, "It ain't exactly difficult to find out that April Adler is formerly April Miller, and April Miller's got a brother in special forces." 

Andrew chokes on his own snort of laughter and he curls an arm protectively around his sister's shoulders. She's older by almost thirty minutes, and she's been on her own since they were fourteen and it doesn't matter it's been thirteen years. Or that she's a woman grown, with a life, and doctorates, or that she's rapidly grown the Adler Foundation into the sort of philanthropic charity that people write articles about in Vanity Fair. He remembers her fourteen and terrified in a hospital bed begging the doctor to bring her baby to her.

She continues, "Boychick, go on with'im. I'm sure your daddy's missin' you somethin' fierce if he sent  _ th'Batman _ t'Ethiopia t'brang you home." 

“That’s putting it mildly. Mr. Wayne hasn’t slept for weeks,” Bruce told her, painfully sincere despite the obnoxious gimmick and circumstance, “Thank you, Dr. Adler.” 

Jason stands there and rolls his eyes at everything they've just decided to Not Acknowledge. Secret identities are necessary, if also stupid, but this is just too much. 

“Okay, no, April—” he starts. It feels too soon to call her “mom” to her face but it feels wrong to use her name and— he’ll deal with that later. There’s a briefly tense moment where it’s assumed he’s going to do some something even dumber than outing their entire family as vigilantes— but he pulls out what passes for Batman’s phone. (Even vigilantes need 5G and group chats. Really, Bruce shouldn’t still be so laughably easy to pickpocket. Jason suspects he’s humoring him.) “— Once we get back to Gotham we’re hanging out. Or whatever you’re supposed to do when you realize your birth mom doesn’t suck monumental eggs— whatever. It’s happening so gimme your number.”

Bruce’s put-upon sigh is barely audible but Jason bristles anyway, “Hey fuck you, Batman, if I don’t get to be Robin then I at least get to hang out with my mom.” 

“No one is going to keep you from seeing your mother, Jason,” comes his even reply, like the very idea of Jason not seeing his mom can’t even be entertained in their reality. 

It’s patently untrue. His whole life, he’s just learned, has been a case study in how _not-true_ that statement is.

For a brief blinding moment Jason’s head feels like a kicked hornets’ nest. 

But there’s a time and place for everything and the last thing he wants in the entire universe is to show his ass in front of his birth mom who barely knows him— sure she stabbed a guy with a shrimp fork that one time but that’s nothing. Still, it comes out petulant when he says to Bruce, “Yeah, sure,” and turns back to April, expectant.

She gives him the line to her office at Gotham U, "I tend t'break cellphones." She says it with the sort of nonplussed shrug that speaks to a lot of cellular phone damage, but she gives him her number and tries to remain as calm as possible.

* * *

April spends the first week back in Gotham expecting Batman to turn up in her office. Or her apartment. Or the kosher supermarket where she buys bread and tampons. 

Honestly, she’s only been actively in her position at Gotham U about three months (she spent the majority of the year prior working on the museum exhibit and harassing Clark) -- but Gotham is weird, and there is, according to Hank, an entire trending hashtag on Chirper about #onlyinGotham. Batman has a certain panache for catching folk with their pants down. 

Sometimes literally.

Still, she spends the first week waiting, and trying to figure out how to contact Bruce Wayne, shockingly, the Adler Foundation is not enough on the radar to warrant an actual chat with the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Much to her endless consternation, and the one person she spoke with with whom she told Jason was her biological son, laughed and then filed a restraining order against her.

It’s been a rough week.

So she buckles down, teaches her classes, and it’s a Tuesday almost two and a half weeks since Ethiopia and she has Clark (well, Kal El, he’s real adamant about maintaining identity boundaries when he’s wearing his undies on the outside) in her office while she quizzes him on a specific pre-Rao declension when her intercom buzzes and Hank says, “Hey doc… you ever plannin’ on tellin’ me you were on a personal basis with Gotham’s prodigal son?”

Hank is a metahuman. He has… trust issues surrounding living in Gotham, and a certain dislike for wealthy people. April being the exception but mostly because she currently lives like a common person these days. Even if she did splurge on a fancy pair of Louboutins when Gotham U hired her on. (He isn’t going to begrudge her a pair of heels. She looks killer in them).

Kal El arches an eyebrow and she says in a quiet stream of Kryptonian that Bruce Wayne adopted her biological son and it’s entirely a Clark Kent face he makes and says, “ _ The one you’ve been looking for?” _

April nods and hits the intercom, “Tell’im as long as he don’t mind my company he can come on it.”

Clark figures out in that moment that April is clearly aware of Bruce’s alternate identity, and he collapses over the couch arm wheezing with laughter.


End file.
